The Nexys™3 digital system development platform features Xilinx's newest Spartan-6 FPGA, 48Mbytes of external memory (including two non-volatile phase-change memories from Micron), and enough I/O devices and ports to host a wide variety of digital systems. The Nexys3 is an ideal platform for any engineer to gain experience with Xilinx's latest technologies, and it is perfectly suited to the classroom - new students can build logic circuits without worrying about complex external interfaces, and more advanced students can build complete digital systems, including controllers, CODECs, and embedded processors.

The on-board Adept high-speed USB2 port provides board power, FPGA programming, and user-data transfers at rates up to 38Mbytes/sec. A large collection of low-cost peripheral boards, including more than 30 Pmods and several new Vmods, can add additional features to the Nexys3, including A/D and D/A converters, breadboards, motor drivers, displays, etc. The Nexys3 is fully compatible with all Xilinx tools, including the free WebPack as well as Chipscope, EDK (embedded processor design kit) and other tools.